Attorneys for two charged in Warrick County slaying want to know who confidential informants are

Attorneys for two people charged in connection with the February slaying of a Central Indiana man in Warrick County want prosecutors to disclose the identities of their confidential informants. A hearing on the request was deferred to later this month.

Attorney Anthony Long, representing 22-year-old Jade Stigall, said the state has three confidential informants who provided information to investigators. Long believes two other people charged in a murder conspiracy of 35-year-old Joseph Nelson of Martinsville, Ind., are the undisclosed informants.

Stigall and David J. Lackey Jr., 30, both of Boonville, are charged in connection with the death of Nelson, who investigators believe was shot in the back of the head near a railroad track in northern Warrick County on Feb. 17. His body was found later that morning by Alcoa workers on the power plant's coal handling system.

Also charged in the slaying are Mathew McCallister, 31, of Indianapolis, and Shawn Grigsby, 25, of Evansville.

All four are charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

McCallister's fiancée, Kelli Wyrick, 33, of Indianapolis, also faces charges of assisting a criminal and two counts of drug possession. She was released on a $1,000 cash bond last week.

After the hearing, Long said they believe McCallister and Grigsby may have been two of the confidential informants in a felony methamphetamine case against Stigall and Lackey. The prosecutor's office dropped those charges in March.

Long believes the charges were dropped to keep from disclosing the informants or that the informants were so "unreliable they're ashamed of them."

The third informant provided information to investigators regarding the murder investigation, Long said.

In a previous hearing, Deputy Prosecutor Dan Miller said officers spoke to a confidential informant while investigating the case and that the prosecution did not want to provide an audio copy of the interview because they didn't want to identify the informant.

Long said they're working on a compromise in which the prosecutor's office discloses the identities of the informants privately, so the attorneys can consider whether the informants possess information or evidence that would help their clients.

Speaking after the hearing, Lackey's attorney, Mark Phillips, said they "don't want to compromise the investigation," but said it is their "duty to pursue justice."

A hearing on the request, and other motions, is set for April 17.

Lackey and Stigall will also have to give blood, DNA, hair and saliva samples to the state, Aylsworth said Monday.

At an earlier hearing, the Warrick County Prosecutor's Office revealed Nelson had hair under his fingernail and a strand of hair in his hand when his body was discovered.